Legal action gets a boost after overwhelming ballot result

Of more than 80,000 people who voted in a consultative ballot, 90% agreed with the union’s recommendation that the new civil service compensation scheme, which governs redundancy terms, should be rejected.

The union had previously informed the Treasury Solicitor of its intention to take a judicial review of the government’s decision to lay a new scheme in parliament, and it will launch proceedings next week. It has also called on the government to reopen negotiations to agree a new scheme that protects members’ rights.

PCS successfully overturned the previous government’s imposed cuts to the compensation scheme after proving in the High Court that it was unlawful to reduce rights that had accrued through length of service without the union’s agreement.

The new scheme removes the need for ministers to agree this or any future cut with its staff, meaning it can impose reductions at will. This, the union says, is a gross abuse of the government’s unique power as both employer and legislator.

The union’s case is that the cuts breach the European Convention on Human Rights. In November parliament’s human rights joint committee reported that the government had failed to make the necessary case for overriding civil servants’ rights.

In the same ballot, members also backed by 96% the union’s national campaign against cuts to jobs, pay, pensions and public services. PCS is working with other unions and community groups to co-ordinate campaigns, including possible industrial action and preparing for the TUC demonstration in London on 26 March.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “Our members have sent a crystal clear message that they will not tolerate their contracts being ripped up simply to allow the government to slash jobs and public services. There is an alternative to the spending cuts which would see us invest in our future and target those wealthy individuals and organisations who go to great lengths to avoid paying tens of billions of pounds in taxes and starve our economy of vital revenue.”

PCS members have voted by a massive majority to back the union?s campaign against cuts to public services, jobs, pay and pensions.

In a national ballot 90% rejected changes to the civil service redundancy scheme – and 96% supported the union's national campaign, ‘There is an alternative’.

More than 80,000 people voted in the ballot – a turnout of 32%.

PCS starts a legal challenge next week.

The union has called on the government to reopen negotiations to agree a new scheme that protects members’ rights.

Meetings will be organised in workplaces covered by the CSCS so members can discuss the next stage of the campaign.

Across the country PCS branches are taking part in anti-cuts campaigns and putting forward the argument that there is an alternative to austerity.

And PCS members are urged to attend the trade union organised ‘March for the alternative’ on Saturday 26 March, with their friends and family.

March for the Alternative - London Saturday 26 March

The flagship demonstration against coalition government cuts is the March for the Alternative – organised by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) on Saturday 26 March. Details of transport are available from this page.

Protestors from all over the UK will gather at 11am at the Victoria Embankment, London, WC2N 6NL.

There will be a march to Hyde Park for a rally.

The TUC is the umbrella organisation for trades unions in Britain.

Coaches and special trains are being chartered from the four corners of country to take trades unionists and their supporters to London.

PCS members are urged to attend with friends and family – to oppose the massive attack on jobs and working conditions being faced across the union.

A big demo will rattle the government and give working people a glimpse of their strength and the confidence to take the battle forward – with co-ordinated strikes if necessary.

• For more details of the day’s events see the TUC’s web page.
• For details of the nationwide campaign against the cuts see the trade union sponsored False Economy website.

Why austerity is a bad move for the UK economy

Watch Mark Blyth, professor of International Political Economy at Brown University and faculty fellow at its Watson Institute for International Studies, explain why public debt is not the same as private in a short film that is both clear and entertaining.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmsjGys-VqA&feature=player_embedded

Professor Blyth is writing "Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea," forthcoming from Oxford University Press in 2011.

Disability benefit cuts 'could breach law'

Plans to cut disability benefits could breach human rights laws, the government has been warned.

Disability lawyer Mike Charles told the BBC the moves could be unlawful if they denied individuals the right to quality of life.

 

Mr Charles said: "The human rights act says individuals have a right to family life, have a right to a quality of life, the whole purpose of the DLA is to put them on an equal playing field with everyone else.

"Any proposal that fails to appreciate those fundamental rights could find it is an infringement of the law.

"My view is even if its not against the letter of the law, it is against the spirit of the law."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12141725

Government shelves equal pay audits

In 2008 the Lib Dem equality spokesperson Lynne Featherstone talking about the Equalities Bill said "Efforts to tackle entrenched inequality are welcome, but serious questions must be asked about why the private sector is getting off so lightly."

"A voluntary audit system for private industry is hardly worth the paper it's printed on. We need to know when the government actually plans to step in if progress isn't made."


The ConDem coalition has announced that compulsory audits to close the gender pay gap have been abandoned, instead, companies will be asked to disclose their pay figures voluntarily.

These plans were announced today by Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone.

Today, she said: “We want to move away from the arrogant notion that government knows best, to one where government empowers individuals, businesses and communities to make change happen.”
"Different organisations face different challenges in promoting equality so if we are to get this right for everybody a much more flexible approach is needed."

The coalition are undermining fair pay and a fair society.

Publication of Fair Pay Review Interim Report

The Fair Pay Review undertaken by Will Hutton published its Interim Report on the 1^st December 2010. 

Having a fair pay system attracts the best employees, enabling innovation and skill and business development. It retains employees reducing turn over, loss of business critical skills and recruiting costs.

We would suggest that “Fairness” in all aspects of employment contribute to the success of an organisations performance whether that is in the Public or Private Sector and impacts beneficially on our economy.

The Fair Pay Review Interim Report acknowledges this “There is abundant evidence that fair organisations are high performing organisations. Organisations are above all social affairs that depend on everyone pulling together to achieve common ends; front line workers and those in the middle of the organisation need to be motivated and engaged if the organisation is to perform. They will do so much more if they feel they work for a fair employer, and that their managers belong to the same committed ethos. The benefits of fairness extend to the wider economy and society. Britain, like every other advanced modern economy, needs a high performing public sector not just to ensure value for money for taxpayers but because there is a co-dependence between private and public. The public sector is the co-creator of wealth, from public investment in science, education and skills through to sustaining the soft infrastructure that underpins private innovation and investment. It is the custodian of the countries social settlement and preserves law and order. A second or third class public sector can only damage the wider economy and society”.

The premise that the Fair Pay Review should assess how we tackle pay inequalities between top executive pay and the rest of the workforce should be welcomed. However; the Interim Report does not appear to address the key “fair pay” issues facing people working in the public sector.

Those key issues include:

• A two year pay freeze equating to a pay cut
• Almost half (48%) of civil servants are in admin grades where the average (median) pay in 2009 was £17,120 for women and £17,600 for men
• Excluding the very highest earners, the average civil service pension is £4,200 a year.
• More than 100,000 people receive a civil service pension of £2,000 or less a year: over 40,000 receive less than £1,000, and more than 60,000 get between £1,000 and £2,000
• Half a million Public sector jobs to be cut under the Comprehensive Spending Review 2010
• The Civil Service Compensation scheme being ripped apart to cut jobs on the cheap

 

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'At a time when average earnings are failing to keep pace with inflation and many workers are facing pay freezes, FTSE 100 directors saw their total earnings boosted by a massive 45 per cent last year. It is hard to talk about 'fair pay' when there is such a gulf between shop-floor and boardroom rewards.'

We would add “it is impossible to trust a report commissioned by the Con-Dem coalition who are destroying the public sector, the services they provide and economy in which they operate”.

The interim report has not addressed any of the key issues facing fair pay in the public sector.